Selling a home that does not exist yet is a different job from selling a resale listing. There is no front door to photograph, no open house this Sunday, and the buyer is being asked to put down a deposit on a rendering and a promise. The sales cycle runs for months, sometimes years, and the people who end up signing usually saw your project many times before they ever talked to a sales rep. In this guide we lay out how we would structure paid ads for a new construction project in the US or Canada: what to run in each phase, what creative works without a finished product, which rules limit your targeting, and which numbers to watch so you know whether the ads are selling homes or just collecting emails.
Match the ads to the phase of the project
The biggest mistake we see is one campaign running the same way from pre-launch to the last ten units. A pre-construction project usually goes through four phases, and each needs a different goal.
| Phase | Ad goal | Main offer |
|---|---|---|
| Pre-launch | Build a registration (VIP) list | First access to floor plans and launch pricing |
| Launch | Book appointments at the sales center or on video | Reserve a time to choose your unit |
| Construction | Keep demand warm, sell remaining inventory | Construction updates, remaining plans, incentives |
| Final inventory | Sell specific units fast | Move-in dates, model home tours, specific unit pricing |
In pre-launch you are buying attention and permission to follow up. A cheap registration is fine here, because the real test comes at launch, when you find out how many registrants book an appointment. In the final phase it is the opposite: you want fewer, more serious leads for specific homes, and a higher cost per lead is expected.
The targeting rules you have to work within
On Meta, ads for selling homes fall under the Housing special ad category in the US, and Meta applies the same category in Canada and has been extending it to more countries. Confirm in Ads Manager what applies to your account. Under that category you cannot target by age, gender or ZIP/postal code, many detailed targeting options are removed, and location targeting has a minimum radius around a point. Lookalike audiences are replaced by a more limited option. Meta changes the details from time to time, so check what Ads Manager shows you when you build the campaign. We cover what still works in our guide to Meta’s Housing special ad category.
In practice this means your creative and your offer do most of the targeting. An ad that clearly says “3-bedroom townhomes from the mid-$500s, 25 minutes from downtown” selects the right buyers far better than any interest you could pick. Google Ads has its own housing policies too: in the US and Canada, housing ads cannot be targeted or excluded by things like gender, age, parental status or marital status, and ZIP code targeting is restricted. Keyword intent still works normally, which is why Search is so valuable for builders.
Creative when the home is not built yet
You do not have a finished product, but you have more material than most developers use. These are the angles we test first:
- Renderings with real numbers. A rendering alone is wallpaper. A rendering with the price range, number of bedrooms and completion date is an ad. Label renderings as artist’s concepts so nobody feels misled later.
- Floor plan walkthroughs. A 20–30 second video panning across a floor plan, with square footage and the price on screen, answers the first question every buyer has: will my life fit in here?
- The location, filmed for real. The land may be empty, but the coffee shop, the school, the park and the commute are real. Short clips of the area build more trust than another rendering.
- Construction progress. Once work starts, monthly site videos are some of the best-performing posts for warm audiences. They show the project is real and moving, which is the main fear with buying pre-construction.
- The builder’s track record. Completed communities, handover photos and real buyer reviews (with permission) answer “will this builder deliver?”.
- Model home or sales center. If you have one, a simple “walk through with us” video beats polished brand films in our experience.
- Deposit and payment structure. For many buyers the deposit schedule is the deciding factor. If yours is buyer-friendly, say so plainly, and have your legal team check the wording.
Keep every claim about prices, incentives and dates accurate and current. Outdated pricing in a running ad is the fastest way to turn a hot lead into an angry one.
Offers that bring buyers, not browsers
“Register for more info” is the default, and it is weak. Give people a specific reason to raise their hand now:
- Price list and floor plans sent as soon as they are released.
- Priority access: registrants get appointments before the public launch.
- A reserved appointment slot at the sales center or by video call.
- For later phases: “Only X homes left in Phase 2” (true numbers only), or a move-in date for specific units.
On Meta Instant Forms, add two or three multiple-choice questions: when they plan to buy, the price range that works, and whether they are pre-approved or buying with cash. These questions raise the cost per lead and cut the number of people your sales team has to chase. We go deeper on this in how to stop getting junk real estate leads.
Launching a new community or condo project? Book 30 minutes with Nick. You leave with a concrete 7-day ad test, whether you hire us or not.
Book a free call →How to split work between Meta and Google
We treat the two platforms as different tools rather than competitors.
Meta (Facebook and Instagram) creates demand. Most people who buy your homes are not searching for your project yet. They are renting, or living in an older home, and a good ad makes them think about it. Meta is where you build the registration list, test creative angles and run video that warms up an audience over months.
Google Search captures demand that already exists. Keywords worth testing include:
- Your project name and the builder’s name (people search for these after seeing your other ads or signage).
- “new homes in [city]”, “new construction townhomes [area]”, “pre-construction condos [city]”.
- Searches for the area plus home type, such as “new builds near [suburb]”.
Search volume for a single suburb can be small, so expect a modest number of clicks at a higher cost per click than social. Those clicks are often the highest-intent leads you will get. Send them to a project page with pricing, plans and a booking calendar, not to your corporate homepage.
Retargeting ties it together. Everyone who watched most of a floor plan video, visited the project page or opened a lead form without submitting should see a different message: construction updates, buyer stories, the appointment offer. Within the Housing category your retargeting options on Meta may be narrower than usual, but engagement-based audiences built from your own videos and pages are usually still available.
Plan for a long sales cycle
With pre-construction, many registrants will not be ready this month. That is normal, and it is why the follow-up system matters as much as the ads:
- Call fast. Someone who registered five minutes ago remembers your project. Someone you call two days later often does not. Route leads to a phone or CRM instantly.
- Send something useful right away. The price list or floor plans they asked for, by email and text, within minutes.
- Stay in touch with real news. Construction milestones, a new phase release, a model home opening. Monthly is usually enough.
- Track status. Mark every lead as contacted, appointment booked, visited, reserved or sold. Without this you cannot tell which ad or offer produced buyers.
The numbers to watch
Cost per lead is the number everyone looks at first and the least useful on its own. For a new construction project, track this chain by campaign and, ideally, by ad:
- Cost per registration (lead).
- Share of leads you actually reach.
- Cost per booked appointment.
- Cost per sales center visit or video meeting.
- Cost per reservation or signed contract.
We cannot give you a universal benchmark, because a $300K townhome in a growing suburb and a $1.5M downtown condo are different markets. What you can do is work backwards: if the project’s marketing budget allows a certain cost per sale and your sales team converts a known share of visits to contracts, you know what an appointment is worth. Our guide on what a real estate lead costs on Facebook explains what drives the price up or down.
How we start: a 7-day test across two or three audiences and several creative angles, such as renderings vs. location vs. floor plans, with a small budget. After a week we know which angle brings leads that answer the phone, and only then move budget to the winners.
What this looked like on a real project
For a villa project with three villas priced at about $150K each, sold to an international investor audience, we ran Meta lead campaigns with qualifying questions in the form so the sales team spoke only to people with a budget. Over 90 days the campaigns brought 541 buyer leads. Across our real estate accounts, leads have come in from €4.65. More on how we run property campaigns is on our real estate ads page.
Launch checklist for a new construction project
- Campaigns set up under the Housing special ad category where it applies.
- A different goal and offer for each phase: registrations, appointments, inventory.
- At least three creative angles: renderings with numbers, floor plan video, location footage.
- Instant Form with two or three qualifying questions, plus a project page with pricing and a booking calendar.
- Google Search on project name, builder name and “new homes in [area]” keywords.
- Retargeting with construction updates and the appointment offer.
- Leads delivered in minutes, called the same day, and tracked through to contract.
Pre-construction buyers need to see a project several times and trust the builder before they put money down. Ads that respect that, with clear numbers, real progress and quick follow-up, sell homes long before the drywall goes up.
FAQ
Can I target by age or ZIP code when advertising new homes on Facebook?
No. Ads for selling homes fall under Meta’s Housing special ad category in the US (and, under Meta’s current rules, Canada), which removes age, gender and ZIP/postal code targeting and sets a minimum location radius. Your offer and creative have to do the targeting.
Should a builder use Facebook or Google ads for a pre-construction project?
Both, for different jobs. Meta builds the registration list and keeps people warm over a long sales cycle. Google Search captures people already searching for new homes in your area or for your project name.
What should I show in ads if the homes are not built yet?
Renderings with prices and completion dates, floor plan walkthrough videos, real footage of the neighbourhood, construction progress and the builder’s completed projects. Label renderings as artist’s concepts.
Launching a new community or condo project? Book 30 minutes with Nick. You leave with a concrete 7-day ad test, whether you hire us or not.
Book a free call →